Development and psychometric testing of the Register - Connectedness Scale for Older Adults.

Connectedness, maintaining active engagement with life, is crucial to successful aging. Yet, no instruments were found to measure connectedness. The purpose of this study was to develop and test a connectedness scale for older adults. A 72-item instrument was administered to 428 community-dwelling older adults. The sample was largely female, White widows/widowers, with a mean age of 76 (SD 6.95) years. The instrument was reduced to 45 items representing five factors with loadings ranging from .40 to .86. The factor labels and their reliability estimates were: (a) self-regulating (.86), (b) facing aging (.85), (c) being part of a family (.87), (d) having friends (.87), and (e) being spiritual (.88). This promising instrument may advance the science of successful aging.